The 139th anniversary of the death of Robert E. Lee will be observed on Monday, Oct. 12, when the Lee Chapel and Museum at Washington and Lee University presents a lecture by noted Civil War historian Gary Gallagher at part of its yearly Remembering Robert E. Lee program.

Gallagher’s presentation, which is entitled “Robert E. Lee Confronts Defeat: Duty in the Wake of Appomattox,” is free and open to the public at 12:15 p.m. in the Lee Chapel Auditorium.

Prior to the lecture, Gallagher will sign copies of his books at 10:30 a.m. in the Lee Chapel Museum Shop.

An expert on military aspects of the Civil War, Gallagher is the John L. Nau III Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He is the author, co-author or editor of numerous important books on the subject, including “Causes Won, Lost and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War,” “Lee and His Generals in War and Memory,” “The Confederate War,” “The Wilderness Campaign,” “Chancellorsville,” “Lee the Soldier” and “The Fredericksburg Campaign.”

Gallagher is editor of the “Civil War America” series and the “Military Campaigns of the Civil War” series of The University of North Carolina Press as well as co-editor of the multi-volume “Littlefield History of the Civil War Era” series. He is president of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War sites and leads frequent battlefield tours for students and the public. His recent research has focused on ways modern interpretations of the Confederacy were influenced by Lee, Jubal A. Early and Douglas Southall Freeman.

A graduate of Adams State College of Colorado, he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to teaching at U.Va., he was professor of history at Penn State. He has received many awards for his research and writing, including the Laney Prize for the best book on the Civil War, the William Woods Hassler Award for contributions to Civil War studies, the Lincoln Prize and the Fletcher Pratt Award for the best nonfiction book on the Civil War.

Six months after the surrender at Appomattox, in the fall of 1865, Lee was inaugurated president of Washington College. He served in that capacity for five years until his death on Oct. 12, 1870.